Calaveras balks at DUI 'bounty' fund

SAN ANDREAS - Drunken drivers and others ticketed for violating the state Vehicle Code got a break Tuesday from the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors.

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By Dana M. Nichols

recordnet.com

By Dana M. Nichols

Posted Nov. 29, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By Dana M. Nichols
Posted Nov. 29, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

SAN ANDREAS - Drunken drivers and others ticketed for violating the state Vehicle Code got a break Tuesday from the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors.

One member of the board had proposed tacking an extra $5 onto the bail amount for anyone ticked for a Vehicle Code violation in Calaveras County. Supervisor Steve Wilensky had proposed that the money raised would fund a reward program that pays witnesses $100 or more to turn in drunken drivers.

But a board majority killed the idea. Supervisor Tom Tryon was particularly outspoken in his opposition.

"Just as a civil libertarian, I am not in favor of bounty hunter-type programs," Tryon said.

Supervisors Gary Tofanelli and Darren Spellman also opposed the proposal, saying they didn't want speeders and other non-intoxicated violators to have to pay for a program that targets drunken drivers.

"I just don't see that as fair," Spellman said.

Spellman asked if there was a legal way to increase the bail only for drunken drivers for the cost of creating a fund to reward people who report drunken drivers.

Calaveras County Counsel Janis Elliott said no.

"This is the only method by which the county can ask the court to adopt this," Elliott said.

Elliott said there is a bill that stalled this year in the state Legislature that would have changed the law to make it possible to fund such a program by increasing bail only for drunken drivers.

Calaveras and other counties in the region have long had programs to reward people for turning in drunken drivers thanks to the efforts of Mountain Ranch resident Sheldon Bissell.

Bissell was motivated because his son, Elliott, then 19, was among three people killed in 1979 when their car was hit by a drunken driver on Highway 49 near Fricot City Road. The drunken driver also died.

The program Bissell started in 1984 as a nonprofit group quickly spread to eight counties, including Amador and San Joaquin, as well as Calaveras. By the late 1990s, however, donations ebbed. In 1998, the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted, with Tryon opposed, to make the reward system a county program managed by the Sheriff's Department.

At times in the following years, the local courts dedicated some money from fines to fund the rewards. When that dried up, Bissell dug into his own pocket to pay what he could toward rewards.

Wilensky and Bissell argued that when rewards were frequent, word got around that driving drunk was likely to be reported and, as a result, fewer people were killed. They said a steady funding source is needed to keep the pressure on.

"It has made a huge difference," Wilensky said of the reward program.

Said Bissell: "I am trying in my lifetime to protect all the people in Calaveras County."

Wilensky said he hopes the board will consider the matter again in the future. In just a few weeks, Wilensky, Tofanelli and Tryon will leave the board. Three new supervisors will be sworn in in January.